*** Daily Chat 27 Dec - everyone welcome! ***

Snaggles

Morning!

Starting this a bit early as am really suffering with insomnia and haven't been to sleep yet despite reading for hours (The Glass Room - brilliant book) and drinking whisky! :cool:

Now Christmas is over, my thoughts are turning to the new year, wondering what I can do to make it better that 2009. And I have hit upon a slightly daunting plan...

In February (or possibly May, depending on course availability), I am starting an Open University degree in Economics and Mathematical Sciences. :eek: :eek:

This is very relevant to my career, and also appeals to my inner (but not so well hidden) geek, so suddenly feel quite excited, although scared too.

Need to look into what funding is available to me, but I've spent the last couple of hours carefully choosing the courses I need to do, and reading their descriptions.

I will start with Discovering Mathematics in February as long as I can get a place, but if not, my back-up plan is to do the You and Your Money course starting in May. Either will give me 30 points towards my degree.

Other than that, my new year's resolutions are easy peasy - lose 2 stones and run a half marathon.... :rotfl:

Sooo....what's everyone else up to today?

firestronaut

I am also suffering from insomnia.

Trying to find ways to earn extra cash at the moment, and fast. DD's first birthday is coming up very verrrrry soon and I'm really short on cash.
Got just over two weeks (_pale_) to raise enough cash to buy her a decent present and throw a little tea party from immediate family and some well-chosen friends.

Snaggles

That sounds challenging Firestronaut. How old is she?

tigzem

Morning..... am sooo tired, been a manic couple of days and today won't be any better, we're going for a walk over the fields with family, then I need to get my tyre sorted out hopefully as I managed to drive over a big bolt and get it stuck in the tyre!! Hope it doesn't cost much.

Am currently drooling over a lovely sofa from DFS :o:o:o:o

Hope you have a nice day xx

postingalwaysposting

Snaggs, sorry to hear about your insomnia. However I love your decision to study, thats great. I am sure you could get some funding, I got my 30point course payed and a grant for books etc. Have a dig around you could find something. I hope you have a good day today

firestronaut, I am sure we can come up with some ideas to get you cash. You are out of season for carboots but have you thought of ebay? If you list today they will end next sunday and to get money out of paypay takes three working days. I know its close but it could work.

The other option is payday loans. I know they are frowned upon but if you go through quidco you can borrow the £100 (or whatever) and although you pay back £110 (or whatever) you can grab yourself £20 cashback making you £10 clear profit. Obviously if you havent used quidco before they will skim off £5 and cashback will take a few months to come through but its another option. Just dont get sucked into using them all the time.

The final one is selling any gold you have online/at a store, recycling old mobiles (mazuma/envirophone) and selling old cd's (music magpie). Most of these will involve postage times though and cheque clearance so may not be too great either but its something to think about

Morning all :beer: I am off too work again so wont see you until later. Then this afternoon I need to do a bit of cleaning/sorting and basically get back into the swing of things. I have missed quite a bit of tv that I wanted to watch over christmas but its all on bbc so I want to catch up on all that sometime (iplayer) :rolleyes:

So have a lovely post boxing day and I will see you all later, oh and I must get onto my main pc to change my avatar back

Snaggles

Tigz, hold my hand and we will step away from the DFS sale together. :whistle:

Thanks Pap. I had to leave university half way through a degree course due to family illness, and always intended to go back, but never quite got round to it. I could possibly transfer come credit for this, but to be honest, it's so long ago, and it's a completely different subject (I was originally reading French at the Uni of Kent at Canterbury) so I would prefer to start from scratch.

I did the quiz on the OU website and could answer the example questions without too much head scratching so I am looking forward to it.

Have a good day at work!

firestronaut

Snaggles wrote: »

That sounds challenging Firestronaut. How old is she?

She'll be one

postingalwaysposting wrote:

firestronaut, I am sure we can come up with some ideas to get you cash. You are out of season for carboots but have you thought of ebay? If you list today they will end next sunday and to get money out of paypay takes three working days. I know its close but it could work.

Listed a couple of things this money, hoping they'll sell and maybe bring me £10-15 closer to a decent present.
Any ideas would be wonderful!

hypno06

At one, she will be more interested in the love and attention given to her on her birthday than any material gift. Honestly!

Snaggles - can you still use tesco clubcard vouchers towards OU courses? If so, get collecting as many points as possible!!

Snaggles

Yes, you can I think Hypno thanks. I've been using Asda for online shopping of late but will have to start using Tesco again. Did you have a good Christmas?

hypno06

Not bad thanks snaggs - not completely devoid of stress, but I still have a couple of packs of emergency M&S (well, it is Christmas) jaffa cakes to carry me through How about you?

Snaggles

It was good thanks, the kids loved it, and I had a visitor that made me smile.